1400 square foot Silicon Valley McMansions for only $700K

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Went to a photo shoot for a client yesterday. I was taking photos of recently finished McMansions. Each is 1400 square feet, two bedroom. The bedrooms were very, very small. I have a king size bed...there is no way that a king bed would fit. These are townhome McMansions, so they are joined together in rows of 8. The rows face each other and the bottom floor is the garage. It doesn't look like two cars would fit, side by side, driving to and from the garages. There is barely enough room to back out of a garage...you have to back right up to your neighbor's garage door, directly across from you, and if your neighbor is parked in front of his garage, rather than in it, as many will do, you're not getting out until you ask your neighbor to move their car.

Nice kitchen with wood cabinets, fake marble counters, and a gas stove.

Two tiny, tiny bathrooms.

No yard. Just a little patio. The street is one block off of a major high-traffic Silicon Valley road. I took photos in the model unit. The "living area" windows looked directly out over the back parking lot of the gas station next door. No yard...just a postage-stamp sized "patio."

$700 K. Let me know if you want one, I can get you hooked up.

:eyes:

I asked "Who's buying these?" and was told "young couples," which means a number of things (two rich double-income people paying for it all, two people whose parents are paying for it all, two people whose parents made the down payment and now they are facing the mortgage payments, etc).

[TK421]

1. They sound shitty....I would love to see some pics

[Amerigo Vespucci]

2. One of the bedrooms

That's a single bed, and as you can see, there's maybe a foot of space at the most between it and the wall, and another foot and a half / two feet between the other side and the tiny bathroom.

If you look up at the ceiling you will see "crown molding"...considered a quality touch among builders, but also something that is used to jack up the price.

At the foot of the bed, you have another two feet of floor space before you're out the door.

Can't post any other photos because I don't want to identify the property.

[TK421]

3. Thanks for the pic...only $700K?

:rofl:

[MineralMan]

4. How is a 1400 sq. ft. ANYTHING a mansion of any kind?

That just doesn't make any sense.

In my mind, a mansion needs at least one room that size.

[Bake]

8. By definition, 1400 sq.ft. is NOT a McMansion.

Bake

[Gormy Cuss]

5. Those townhouses were built just a tad too late.

A few years ago they would have sold out at that price pre-construction. I doubt the 700K price will have many takers these days because there's so much inventory on the market in that range but it is Sili Valley. I could see those units moving quickly in the I-580 corridor.

As long as one bedroom can accommodate a queen size bed there's a market for this type of new, smaller footprint home with little outdoor space. They're basically flops for young professionals who want convenience of location and new construction.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

7. On the photo shoot yesterday, I went to FOUR NEW properties-slash-"communities"

The one I described in this post was $700K per unit. A few miles away we visited another property that was more of what you'd expect in a traditional two-bedroom, two car garage townhome (but they STILL did not have a yard, just a postage-stamp sized patio). I asked how much they were going for.

"A million five."

But you're 100% right, because my client told me exactly the same thing. Early in his career, quite a few years ago, he bought a condo because he wanted "convenience of location and new construction." He had a long commute to the different sites and liked having a convenient location to fall down and call it a day, if he chose to do so.

Plus, there is a degree of foreign investment (although from what I've heard foreign investors are snapping up foreclosures, not these), and also people buy them as investments to rent either now or later.

But still...when you're inside of 1400 square feet and you're trying to do the math and come up with how it's worth $700K, it's a challenge. A big part of these specific properties is the fact that you're paying for Silicon Valley. I don;t care how overcrowded or expensive it's become...it has not stopped people, either from the U.S. or abroad, from moving here.

[MorningGlow]

6. There's a sucker born every minute

And it proves that some real estate markets are beyond ridiculous.

Our last house was 1600 square feet (log home, two huge bedrooms we couldn't fill no matter how hard we tried). On a seasonal road. With 30 wooded acres. Eight neighbors total on the whole street. We sold it three years ago in the $170s. And that appreciated in value from when we bought it, three years prior to that, for $145K.

Then again, there are some icky tract houses going up a few miles away from where we live now, overlooking the interstate (nice!), "starting at" $150K. Which, for this region, is unheard of. But they'll sell--to more suckers.

[azmouse]

9. For comparison, my house in the Phoenix area

is 2800 sqft, on an acre with a pool and is currently valued at half that price.
We've taken a big hit on prices here but honestly I think prices are more in line now with the true worth of housing.

I used to live in the Silicon Valley... no amount of money would ever get me back there.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

12. If I left, there's a good chance I'd feel the same way you do...

...it's the leaving that has been the challenge. I keep thinking "do I want to die here?" Of course, not knowing when that's going to be, it's a hard question to answer.

:toast:

[Shell Beau]

10. My house is more than 1400 sq. ft., and it sure isn't any kind of mansion.

It must just be in a ritzy area.

[MineralMan]

11. Mine, too. It's a 3 br 1950s rambler.

If that's a mansion, I'm a freaking King!